Results 3,341-3,360 of 21,440 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Estimates for Public Services 2012
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Supplementary) (28 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister knows very well that the issue here is the small proportion of people on pensions that are too large, which are indefensible in the current economic climate. That is the reason the concept of emergency legislation came into being. It provides emergency measures for a crisis situation. The Minister of State referred to legal advice. Perhaps he will help us out here. The...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Estimates for Public Services 2012
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Supplementary) (28 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: The people, particularly public service workers who have endured a substantial cut in their wages and their standard of living, are very conscious and resentful of a situation where a small coterie at the top who are overpaid when employed and over pensioned when on pension, all at the expense of the taxpayer. I do not accept the Minister of State's argument with regard to the emergency...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Estimates for Public Services 2012
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Supplementary) (28 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Department is refusing to deal with the issue of high pensions. That is the rider to its position.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Estimates for Public Services 2012
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Supplementary) (28 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: There is a shocker.

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Today we read details of the Government's plan to tax the family home, leaked to the media by the Government. The plan to tax the family home is straight out of Fianna Fáil's four year plan.

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: This Government is continuing to implement Fianna Fáil's austerity plan.

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am glad that Fianna Fáil has had a Pauline conversion on the road to Damascus.

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: That party now opposes its own policy, it seems, in a truly remarkable spectacle of political gymnastics.

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: The party might be a bit late in terms of convincing the electorate, however. The plan to tax the family home is a crazy policy.

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Tánaiste knows that we are dealing with the consequences of a burst property market; that people were ripped off and paid outrageous sums for houses which have subsequently lost 50% or more of their value; that young couples are left raising children in one and two bedroom apartments or houses that are too small, with no prospect of moving on; that there are 160,000 families in...

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Tánaiste ought to be ashamed of himself for doing this.

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Why is the Government continuing to take the soft options? Why does the Government continue to place the burden on low and middle income families, on the coping classes and the working poor? Why is it that the Government is continuing with this plan to tax people's homes which is one of the failed policies of Fianna Fáil?

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I do not think that the Tánaiste's attempts at diversion qualify as an answer.

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: If he had done his research, the Tánaiste would know that the rates system in the North is a world away from the tax that his Government proposes to place on the family home.

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is a world away from it.

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: How does the Tánaiste imagine families will find an additional €400 or €500? Where are the exemptions? The media reports refer to deferrals of payment of the tax on the family home but a deferral is not a waiver. I ask the Tánaiste, at the very minimum, to reassure those who are out of work, who live on a pension and those who literally count the cents - not the...

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: The information came from a Government source.

Order of Business (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is not agreed. I object to this matter going through without debate. The Supplementary Estimate seeks an additional €35 million for the payment of Civil Service pensions. I recognise that the vast bulk of civil servants are in receipt of very modest pensions, with €30,000 being the norm, but the Government has categorically failed-----

Order of Business (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----to deal with the excessive pension pots of a minority. It is unacceptable to look for €25 million in additional resources one week before another vicious budget when the Government will not deal with the issue of runaway pensions and pension pots.

Order of Business (29 Nov 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I have two questions. The first relates to the taxi regulation Bill. The Tánaiste will be aware of the pressure taxi drivers across the State are under. The deregulation of the industry some years ago was a disaster. When can we expect that Bill? Second, the ombudsman has found, once again, that the Department of Health and Children is operating a scheme in breach of the Equal...